The half-car sitting in the Allard Hall Parkade. Jesse Roma/The Griff

There is a chopped-in-half car sitting in Allard Hall’s parkade. What the heck is it, and what is it doing there?

Deep inside the bowels of Allard Hall hides one of MacEwan University’s more puzzling artifacts: the rather filthy rear end of an early-2000s Chevrolet Cavalier.

This half-car has sat here for years, tucked into a stall on the east side of Allard’s parkade.  The longer it sits, the more questions are raised. Why is it there? What is, or was, its purpose? What happened to the rest of it? And if it’s going to keep sitting there, can someone just buy it from the school and put it to use in some other fashion?

“It seems to literally just be collecting dust,” says MacEwan student Cait Erlenbach, who first noticed this half-car in the fall of 2023 during her first semester. A professional communications major, she is one of many students who pass by it in their day-to-day visits to Allard Hall. 

Erlenbach remembers her immediate reaction upon first seeing the half-car as “confusion,” believing that it was an old stage prop used by the department of theatre, even though “it doesn’t even seem like the most useful half of a car to keep?” 

Reactions from other students range from surprise and curiosity to a more “Cavalier” attitude. “I think people just accept its existence,” says Erlenbach.

Those who are aware of it, that is. While the half-car is common knowledge for some, others know nothing about it. Even MacEwan’s Parking Services staff. 

“There’s half a car in the parkade?” said one, when asked about it. 

Some extra reporting revealed that Erlenbach’s initial assumption as to the purpose of the half-car was not far off at all. 

The Explanation

In December of 2018, MacEwan’s department of theatre presented its adaptation of the classic film and musical 9 to 5. While their production had to go without the likes of Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda, it did feature a somewhat different star of the show.

For those who are unfamiliar with the plot of this 40-plus-year-old movie, there may be some mild spoilers here. There is a scene where a character named Mr. Hart is kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car. Now, what better way to faithfully recreate this scene for MacEwan’s production than to use the actual trunk of a car? Of course, they would need to find one first.

“I believe the set designer for that show, Megan Koshka, actually sourced the trunk already made from the high school her dad taught at,” says Josée Chartrand, an assistant professor from the department of theatre. 

With a trunk sourced, the production continues, and MacEwan’s Mr. Hart gets thrown into it. But once it’s curtains for 9 to 5, what happens to (arguably) the most interesting prop?

“After the show, the high school did not want it back,” says Travis Hatt, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for theatre production at MacEwan. 

“So, we got to keep it,” adds Chartrand.

And with that, the half-car is cast off to the corner of the Allard Hall parkade, where it stays for several years, gathering layers of dust and phallic graffiti, until one day someone takes enough of an interest in it to write about its story. 

Will it ever be used again? “Who knows,” says Hatt. “It will depend on the shows that get put on in the future here at MacEwan.”

Is it for sale? Hatt’s answer is intriguing.

“It could be…”

So, if you have a taste for odd or interesting décor or furniture, you could do worse than to make an offer to the department of theatre for this piece of MacEwan history. But only if you beat out this writer, who does need a new couch.